Omaha daily bee., 1887-05-05
The Worlds Greatest Poet.

81. LOUIS tWD6-DeWOCTut, 1pt 81.
A little over three centuries ago the
greatest poet this world has held, since
Homer, was born. Two hundred and
sixty.onc years ago, on his own birthday,
ne died. Those three centuries have car
ried English poetry through periods of
more or less creative power, and il is now
struggling once more for a breath of free
dom. Those same three centuries have
created American literature. No group
of English poets since Shakespeare equals
in average power those gathered in the
Athens of New England. Shakespeare
dealt with the past. What added power
can we conceive lent to his dramas if he
had been able to see the world as it is to-
day? Printing was in its infancy. The
newspaper was virtually unknown. The
drama was the only form of life that re-
lieved the dull daily trend of the popu-
lace. The theatre was the newspaper.
1t was everywhere, and in all forms-in
open fields, in barns, in markets, in in
closures without roofs. Shakespeare was
originally strOiling player. We can, IN
this age of the telegraph and railroad,
have no conception OF what the pO wer of
the theater must have bean, and how its
arrival was neralueQ.
The crudities of the age in morals were
those of rusticity. The butfoonery of
Falstaff, and few others of the great
dramatiSt's characters, were for the aver
age crowd Yet his genius is shown quite
rs strongly in his buffOOns as in his
heroes-for Falstatf is prince of his kind,
as Hamlet is prince in Denmark. But
the refinement of modern life is shown
in no other direction more markedly
than in the fact that these plays, to be
put on the modern stage, must be eX-
purgated. 1t is often said Shakespeare
spoke as his age spoke. No, he did not
not at least, in his plays-but vastly
above his age. English wit of the Eliza
bethan era was uncleanly, rs is more
manifest in Shakspeares sonnets. The
last flush OF such sensuous sentiment in
literature was in Byron's Don Juan. 1t
will never again find sufferance. Swim
burne and Whitman essayed each nude
in poetry, but it was welcomed with uni
versal condemnation.
When will America be ripe enough to
cOnsumate itself in one master mind?
Our literature, SO far; is dlffusive, and
the influences that produce it too di-
verse. The only school that has devel-
oped fully is that of Boston-the trans
cendental--and that has passed its ex-
clusiveness. 1t will be generations be-
the spirit and power of the continent,
and given it expression. English litera-
ture was hardly born before the four
teenth century. 1t is barely 500 years
old. In it is now included magnificent
surfelt of genius. The tendency al pres.
ent is not to create another Shakespeare,
but to average the talent of the people.
The same is true of the whole world.
Tn. newspaper, going with the railroad
into every hamlet, distributes power of
intellect. Yet there are also concentric
forces. Probably the truly greatest men
of our age are, aud for some time will
be, scientists. Darwinism will not soon
spend itself. All thought seems inferior
compared with the drama OF life. That
now is found to have been in progress
for hundreds of millions of years. Beauty
of expression is less valued than grasp of
truth.
But we shall not fail to observe in
Shakespeare a marvellous summing up
and use of the knowledge that preceded
him. His omnivorous reading and di-
geston is the most wonderful thing
about the man. There seems to have
been nothing going that he did not make
his own. Will the greater minds of the
future surpass, therefore, the greatest of
the past? There is no reason for placing
Shakespeare intellectually ahead OF